CQOD: 02/11/08 -- Rust: the unifying principle

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 11, 2008Meditation:
    [Jesus:] Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
    -- Luke 12:24-28 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    We cannot find in the Old Testament the fondly drawn distinction of our latter days between the natural and the supernatural, for the whole of the natural order is so directly linked with God that its conservation must be regarded as a kind of continuous creation, quite as dependent on God’s creative Word as when first the heavens and the earth were made.
    ... E. C. Rust, Nature and Man in Biblical Thought [1953]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we depend upon Your grace every moment.

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CQOD: 02/10/08 -- Whale: the great divide

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 10, 2008

Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543

Meditation:
    When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
    -- Matthew 25:31-33 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    I know it is no longer fashionable to talk about Hell, one good reason for this being that to make religion into a prudential insurance policy is to degrade it. The Faith is not a fire-escape. But in rejecting the [Bible’s illustrations of eternal punishment] as grotesque and even immoral, many people make the mistake of rejecting the truth it illustrated (which is rather like rejecting a book as untrue because the pictures in it are bad). It is illogical to tell men that they must do the will of God and accept his gospel of grace, if you also tell them that the obligation has no eternal significance, and that nothing ultimately depends on it. The curious modern heresy that everything is bound to come right in the end is so frivolous that I will not insult you by refuting it. “I remember,” said Dr. [Samuel] Johnson on one occasion, “that my Maker has said that he will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.” That is a solemn truth which only the empty-headed and empty-hearted will neglect. It strikes at the very roots of life and destiny.
    ... J. S. Whale (1896-1997), Christian Doctrine, Cambridge University Press, 1941, pp. 186-187

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your judgment is righteous.

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CQOD: 02/09/08 -- Whale: the inevitable

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 9, 2008Meditation:
    No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
    -- John 3:13-15 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    As a sinful man looking at death and beyond it, into the eternal world, I need salvation. Nothing else will meet my case. There is something genuinely at stake in every man’s life, the climax whereof is death. Dying is inevitable, but arriving at the destination God offers to me is not inevitable. It is not impossible to go out of the way and fail to arrive. Christian doctrine has always urged that life eternal is something which may conceivably be missed. It is possible to neglect this great salvation and to lose it eternally, even though no man may say that anything is impossible with God or that his grace may ultimately be defeated. (Continued tomorrow)
    ... J. S. Whale (1896-1997), Christian Doctrine, Cambridge University Press, 1941, pp. 186-187

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I pray that You take me at last to be with You forever.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2008, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 02/08/08 -- Law: death to the passions

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 8, 2008Meditation:
    Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
    -- Galatians 5:24 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    There is nothing safe in religion, except in such a course of behavior that leaves nothing for corrupt nature to feed or live upon; which can only then be done when every degree of perfection we aim at is a degree of death to the passions of the natural man.
    ... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739]

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that seeks Your glory in self-control.

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CQOD: 02/07/08 -- Murray: limiting God

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 7, 2008Meditation:
    That day when evening came, [Jesus] said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
    He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
    He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
    They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
    -- Mark 4:35-41 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do.
    ... Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your answers to prayer are always greater than I ever expected.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2008, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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CQOD: 02/06/08 -- Carlyle: holiness vs. sin

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 6, 2008

Ash Wednesday
Commemoration of Martyrs of Japan, 1597

Meditation:
    Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
    -- Isaiah 60:1-3 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    The Christian must be consumed with the infinite beauty of holiness and the infinite damnability of sin.
    ... Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, take my sin away, that I may see Your holiness.

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CQOD: 02/05/08 -- Barclay: what are the dangers?

Christian Quotation of the Day

February 5, 2008Meditation:
    "Haven't you read," [Jesus] replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
    -- Matthew 19:4-6 (NIV)

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Quotation:
    While it is right to stress the dangers of the permissive society, the argument from danger is not in itself a good argument, because it seems to imply that, if the danger could be removed, if there was no risk of a child and no peril of infection, then the objection would be removed, too. It tends to imply that the objection is to the attendant dangers and not to the thing itself. But if sexual intercourse before and outside marriage is against the teaching of Jesus, then the thing is not only dangerous, it is wrong in itself.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), Ethics in a Permissive Society, Collins, 1971, p.209

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Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, instruct Your people concerning Your laws.

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See Believer's Desktop Companion 2007
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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2008, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
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